'They Pay No Royalties Here, Nor There' -- Steve Melendez, President American Indian Genocide Museum

Homestake Gold Mine, South Dakota

They Pay No Royalties Here, Nor There 

When it comes to ownership of the natural resources of the world, what was once "we the people," has become "we the super-rich of the world."

By Steve Melendez

Reno Sparks Indian Colony

President, American Indian Genocide Museum

Censored News

I just heard Dr. Young's sermon today Dec. 8th on "Using your gifts". Dr. Ed Young is the Senior Pastor of Second Baptist Church here in Houston, Texas He talked about the income disparity in South America and how there was no middle class.

"Chick-Fil-A," where everyone benefits is the Christian model! This sounds good but the American Model is the Doctrine Of Discovery -- the 1823 Supreme Court decision of Johnson v. M'Intosh that said the Indigenous people lost title to the land when Columbus discovered it!

This law is still on the books and the reason the government does not honor treaties. It is also why these multi-national mining companies do not have to pay royalties to the federal government. The General Mining Law of 1872 says anyone who "discovers" a "valuable deposit" on "unappropriated federal land" may purchase title for a nominal charge.

This white supremacist colonial law, hatched in America, is how these mining companies can circumnavigate Indigenous ownership. It's happening right under our noses!

When the Lakota protested up in Standing Rock, South Dakota, you had Dr. Young calling the protesters, "snakes and moccasins."

The heart of the matter in that protest was that the Lakota will not accept the billion-dollar-plus settlement for their Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. A treaty is the Supreme Law of the Land!

How is it that the Canadian mining company Barrick Gold pays little or no royalties to the federal government? It is because these mining companies are the ones who set the gold standard for offshoring their profits! When the Homestake Mine ended their over a century of looting the Lakota-owned Black Hills in 2001, they merged with Barrick Gold, "as though they were always one."

Since the Homestake Mine was one of the oldest companies traded on the New York Stock Exchange, is Barrick Gold a foreign company or is it "we the people"---American shareholders? The only problem with that scenario is that "we the indigenous people" do not share in a piece of the pie just as others who cannot afford to buy shares in Barrick Gold.

How is it that white supremacist colonial law is allowed to exist right under Dr. Ed Young's nose?

It is because this law ---this Doctrine of Discovery---is being used and replicated throughout South America and throughout the world by these international mining companies.

When it comes to ownership of the natural resources of the world, what was once "we the people," has become "we the super-rich of the world."

Just as President U.S. Grant told Congress at the time, "Gold has been discovered in the Black Hills, a portion of the Sioux reservation," you have to wonder who is being looted now? 

Steve Melendez